REVIEW: Lord Belial - Nocturnal Beast

This one really came as a surprise to me. I vaguely knew Lord Belial and i did hear a couple of songs of them in the past but they didn't make any real impression on me.That is until now.This record is rather outstanding, actually. We're talking Black Metal, here, of course. To my relief, without corpsepaint. Do not expect insane amounts of blastbeats and whirlwinds of fast riffing, because this one's quite 'laid back', so to speak. These Swedes use clean and semi-clean picking in almost every song and have accomplished a near-classic, in my opinion.The cold and bitter spirit of Immortal is roaming about in the compositions. But let it be clear that the men in Lord Belial have not been stealing or rudely copying Abbath and co.. They do have a unique style and I dare say that this album will appeal a lot of black metal fans. Lord Belial have also managed to pick up Kris Verwimp to do the cover-artwork and the man did a beautiful job, again. The only thing that may bother some people is the lack of real speed-induced songs to get their adrenalin pumping. Uptempo bits are included but don't expect any 'panzer division Marduk' type of insanity.People who are interested in a great, melodic but gritty black metal record, really should give this nocturnal beast a try.